Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the DiasporaExploring cultural expressions of Puerto Rican queer migration from the Caribbean to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes analyzes how artists have portrayed their lives and the discrimination they have faced in both Puerto Rico and the United States. Highlighting cultural and political resistance within Puerto Rico’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender subcultures, La Fountain-Stokes pays close attention to differences of gender, historical moment, and generation, arguing that Puerto Rican queer identity changes over time and is experienced in very different ways. He traces an arc from 1960s Puerto Rico and the writings of Luis Rafael Sánchez to New York City in the 1970s and 1980s (Manuel Ramos Otero), Philadelphia and New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s (Luz María Umpierre and Frances Negrón-Muntaner), and Chicago (Rose Troche) and San Francisco (Erika López) in the 1990s, culminating with a discussion of Arthur Avilés and Elizabeth Marrero’s recent dance-theater work in the Bronx. Proposing a radical new conceptualization of Puerto Rican migration, this work reveals how sexuality has shaped and defined the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. |
Contents
Chapter 1 The Persecution of Difference | 1 |
Chapter 2 Autobiographical Writing and Shifting Migrant Experience | 19 |
Chapter 3 Womens Bodies Lesbian Passions | 64 |
Chapter 4 Visual Happenings Queer Imaginings | 93 |
Chapter 5 Nuyorico and the Utopias of the Everyday | 131 |
Acknowledgments | 169 |
Common terms and phrases
African American Arthur Avilés artists Arturella Avilés Avilés's bisexual Boricua Brincando el charco Bronx Caribbean Carmen CENTRO Journal Cernuda characters Cherríe Moraga critical Cruz-Malavé cuento dance diasporic diasporic Puerto Rican discussion Editorial essay exile experience feminist film filmmaker Fountain-Stokes Frances Negrón-Muntaner García Gelpí gender Go Fish Hispanic homosexuality identity immigrant island José Julia de Burgos Latin American Latina/o lesbian LGBT literary Literature Luis Rafael Sánchez Luz María Umpierre Maéva de Oz male Manuel Ramos Manuel Ramos Otero Margarita Poems Marrero migration Minnesota Press Mujer narrator Nuyorican performance Philadelphia poet poetic speaker political portrayed Puerto Rican community Puerto Rican culture Puerto Rican lesbian Puerto Rican queer puertorriqueña queer Puerto Rican racial Ramos Otero relationship René Marqués Rico Río Piedras Rivera Rodríguez Rose Troche San Juan Santería sexual social Spanish specifically story Trinidad's Troche Umpierre's United Universidad de Puerto Watermelon Woman Woman women writer York City York-Rican